This document presents selected results of GAO’s Web-based survey of 215 project sponsors to obtain information on the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) funding of transit projects nationwide. The questions in our survey were posed to obtain information on project sponsors’ completed, ongoing, and planned transit projects and also their experiences with the New Starts and Small Starts programs. The survey was e-mailed to projects sponsors (including transit agencies, city transportation offices, and metropolitan planning organizations, among others) in urbanized areas with populations of over 200,000 and that have an annual ridership on their transit systems of over 1 million. Of the 215 project sponsors, 168 project sponsors responded to the survey, for a survey response rate of 78 percent. We do not include responses for all survey questions. Specifically, this document does not include narrative responses that we received.

A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology is contained in our report, "Public Transportation: Future Demand Is Likely for New Starts and Small Starts Programs, but Improvements Needed to the Small Starts Application Process" (GAO-07-917) (Washington D.C.: July 27, 2007). We administered the survey from February 2007 to May 2007 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Instructions for Viewing this Survey

How to View The Surveys

• Click on the Table of Contents link located in the lower right of this screen. To read to the bottom of the screen, you may need to use your scroll bar on the right side of this screen.
• The first screen in the survey is an introduction and general information that was sent to and viewed by recipients of the survey. There are no survey results to view on this screen. This screen is for information only and you may by-pass it by clicking on Next located at the bottom of the screen in the lower right.
• The survey may have links to allow respondents to bypass inapplicable questions (skip patterns). While these were active links during the data collection period, they have now been disabled.
• When a respondent wrote a narrative response to a question, we do not report any information.

How to View the Responses for Each Question

• To view the responses to each question, click on the question number (Links to survey questions will look like this: 1., etc.).
• After viewing the responses to each question, click on the "x" in the upper right corner of your screen to close that window and return to the questionnaire.

How to Interpret Data for Ongoing and Planned Projects

• The questionnaire asks respondents to provide data for as many as 5 ongoing and planned transit projects. We have combined all of the ongoing transit projects, and the responses can be viewed in the first ongoing transit project section. Similarly, we have combined all of the planned transit projects, and those data can be viewed in the first planned transit project section.

How to Return to a Page That You Previously Visited

• To return to the last screen you viewed, click the Previous button on the lower right corner of the screen.
• Click the Next button to advance to the next screen.

How to Make the Font Larger on Your Screen

• You can make the font larger by changing your browser setting. For example, on Internet Explorer you can change the font size by going to View and selecting Text Size.

Contact Information?

• If you have questions concerning these data, please contact Katherine Siggerud at (202) 512-6570 or Siggerudk@gao.gov .